Well I’m starting to catch up with my blog, even if it is taking a while to do, I’m getting there…slowly. I’m starting to wonder how long it will take until I’m back up to date…but then I think ‘stop thinking about it and just get on with the blog’…so I am…
So going back to last August, the weather started to improve, it was the perfect weather to be sat on a beach, so me and Amanda decided to pack our stuff and spend a week in Bournemouth at my dad’s house. We got the train (which is half the price and takes half the time of the coach) and were soon in Bournemouth. This was also the first time my dad and Amanda had met and they got on pretty well.
The next day we needed something to do and seeing as I’m more familiar with Bournemouth than Amanda, I decided to show her where I used to live. We got the bus into Bournemouth and then we took a walk down to Alum Chine, whenever I do this walk it feels like I never left despite the fact that Alum Chine has changed loads over the past 10 years. While we were at Alum Chine I told Amanda about Sandbanks and how it’s my favourite place in the world, so we decided to go there one day…
…In fact we decided to go there the next day. I knew there was a bus you could catch from Bournemouth pier, so we headed there only to find out that the buses were every 90 minutes and we’d just missed one. We needed another plan, so we went over to Poole to check out the harbour and the shops and decided to try Sandbanks some other time.
Over the next few days my dad wasn’t at work so we’d use those days to go to places with him in the car. On the Saturday we couldn’t think of anywhere to go, but my dad suggested Lymington which sounded ok to us so we went along with it.
Lymington was alright, there were lots of boats coming in and out, there was also a market which sold various bits and bobs, I did notice that it mainly sold bobs and hardly any bits but I didn’t say anything at the time. After Lymington we headed over to Highcliffe for a sit on the beach and to top up our sunburn.
The next day we decided to check out Monkey World. Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against monkeys…or apes, but what I’m not too keen on is putting them on display for people to stare at, especially when you get people with pushchairs pushing their way to the front telling their kids to ‘Look at the monkeys!’ when they’re clearly looking at apes. In fact, while we’re on the subject, I also had a problem with the name, ‘Monkey World’ suggests that you’re visiting a world full of monkeys, where in actual fact it was mainly apes and even though it was a big place, it didn’t quite qualify to be classed as a world, I think ‘Primate Park’ would probably be more suitable. But apart from all that we had quite a good day, they had a section where the lemurs would roam free and they’d run around your legs and steal your food then attack your children.
After a while we were starting to get even more sunburnt and we’d seen just about everything there, so we headed off to Weymouth. Now, I know Weymouth well, every year when I was little I’d get taken there for the day, so much to the point we’d all get sick of it, but it had been a few years since I’d last been so I didn’t mind so much.
We had a walk round the harbour and a sit on the beach and then hunger started to kick in, so we headed towards the busiest chip shop in the country…well maybe the 2nd busiest if you count the one at the Black Country (beef dripping) Museum. After queuing for a good half hour we finally got served, it was worth the wait after all that as the fish and chips were really nice, I would have gone back for more if the queue hadn’t doubled in size since when we were queuing up.
The following day was bank-holiday Monday, and just like any other bank-holiday Monday - everyone was going where you wanted to go. As it happened though my dad fancied a lazy day before he went back to work, so I went into Bournemouth with Amanda for a sit on the beach and an ice cream.
Tuesday was our final full day in Bournemouth, so we wanted to make the most of it, we could have gone to Sandbanks, but we decided to go to Brownsea Island instead because there would be more to do. We got the bus to Poole, grabbed some food to take with us and then jumped on a boat to Brownsea Island.
The cool thing about Brownsea Island is that it’s just about the only place in the UK that you can find red squirrels…or so they say, I’ve been there a few times and never seen a single one, I reckon they could be making it up.
After walking around for a while we noticed that there wasn’t really much there, there were a few peacocks but no red squirrels. We headed back to the boat, on the way back it does a tour of the Bournemouth and Poole coast, they went past Sandbanks and told us that it is now the most expensive place to buy property in the UK.
That evening me and Amanda went for a meal at the carvery near my dad’s house. I’d been there loads before and never had any trouble getting served for drinks, but when it came to ordering I got asked for some ID…I looked at them shocked…I was nearly 26 for god’s sake!
The next day we came home, by the time I got home I was exhausted but I’d had a really good week. I’d have stayed there for longer, but we had something to do the next week.
What could that be?…Well you’re just going to have to wait, I still need to write about that and I have a pizza in the oven.
Maybe it’s about time I updated this before it gets forgotten about altogether. In time I’ll give the blog a new look so that I give myself reason to keep updating, and I know I’ve backdated this but I’m going to try and update you on the past few months, obviously I won’t be able to talk about every single day because that would be stupid, but I’ll try my best to summarize each month.
So let us carry on where I left off…let’s go back a couple of weeks…ok months, back in July things were getting a bit weird with my sister and Dean. I saw them sat at the side of the Co-op mid-July, my sister had her head in her hands, something wasn’t right, not only that but every time Dean rang - my sister either told us not to answer it or unplugged the phone…bad idea…that’s the one thing you don’t do to an already paranoid cage-fighting weirdo and sure enough he turned up at our house uninvited.
After talking to my sister on the step for half an hour, he came in and demanded a cup of tea from my mum, I introduced him to Amanda while he sat there with the same old stupid cocky look on his face as he slurped his tea.
Later on that day (after demanding a cup of tea from me this time) a taxi pulled up outside for Dean, I was cooking my dinner at the time so I wasn’t paying much attention but I realised that after 15 minutes the taxi was still waiting. I went to see if everything was ok and my sister told me that the taxi was trying to rip Dean off so I told her to cancel that taxi and call another taxi firm. Half an hour later the taxi came and Dean was gone.
It was only the next day that I find out what really happened…
My sister wanted to get to bed so that she could be up the next morning for work, however, Dean was lying across her bed refusing to let her sleep saying that he felt ill, she phoned my mum in tears because it was getting late and he wouldn’t move, she then phoned a taxi to take Dean home but the reason that it was waiting for so long was because Dean refused to move. But that’s not all…
Dean phoned the next morning to apologise, he spoke to my mum because my sister was at work. My mum told him that he isn’t to ever come here again, but again he said that he wanted to apologise…not because of him acting like a total idiot…but because he was sick all up our entry and outside the front of our house. The next day my sister put all his things in a bag and finished with him. At least that was the last we saw of him…or was it…?
That Friday was Gemma and Woody’s engagement party, I was in charge of the music and photography but luckily I had the playlist saved on my iPod and enough space on my memory card to hold 500 photos. During the day I got my hair cut and then rushed out in a taxi, picking Amanda up on the way.
This was the first time my friends had ever met Amanda and they all got on well with her. The night itself was really good plus it was good to see people that I hadn’t seen in a while, towards the end of the night 2 members of the Chairmen did a few songs followed by Glenn singing a few classics.
The night was polished off by a helium fuelled sing along, if we’d taken in any more helium we’d be floating home.
Moving on to August now and the weather was slightly crappy, it was more like November than August, you were lucky if you had a day without a Gloucestershire town being submerged with all the flooding. Sunny days were few and far between so it was a case of making the most of one whenever the sun came out.
Luckily enough there was a Saturday in August when it was nice enough for a barbeque, we were invited over to Carl’s house for some char-grilled fun, this was a good opportunity to introduce Amanda to all my friends that weren’t at Gemma and Woody’s party. The day itself was good fun and it was rounded off (as always) with some Guitar Hero and Wii action. Afterwards we all sat round to watch Pan’s Labyrinth, it’s got to be one of the weirdest films I’ve ever seen, I thought it would be mainly aimed at kids but if I had kids I’d never let them watch it…which makes it a good film.
The next weekend saw a few hours without rain, what better way to spend the day than to go to the maize maze in Earlswood, what made it even more of a challenge was to get out before the rain started again.
We entered the maze a bit too confident of ourselves…until we realized that we really didn’t have a clue where we were going. After a few hours of getting lost and losing the will to live we ended up splitting into 3 groups (partly down to the lack of cooperation, and partly down to Jenny wanting to get out so she can have a cigarette).
Adam and Jenny were the first out with their ‘sod the rules and climb through the maize’ strategy, then it was Gaz, Carl and Marcus with their ‘finish the maze by the rules even if it takes 4 hours’ tactic, and then it was me and Amanda with our ‘sit on the bridge and try and follow somebody who knows where they’re going’ strategy.
Well that’s August nearly done, there’s still a bit more to cover but I’ll leave that for another day…
So in my last blog I promised that things will start changing for the better, and guess what…
…they have!
A couple of weeks ago I met up with a friend from college for a drink, her name is Amanda (or Amo for short), we hadn’t seen each other for a while so it was good to catch up again. We went for a drink in wetherspoons and then decided to catch Shrek 3 at the cinema. When we got to the cinema I went to pay and then remembered that I had a 2 for 1 code…
“2 for Shrek 3 please…” “£9.40 please.” *gives him £7 thinking it would only come to £6* “Thanks…” “Oh yeah I have a 2 for 1 code thingy…” *watches him get confused, type in the code, hand us the tickets and £7.10 change* “Enjoy your film…” “Thanks.”
As we walked off I realized that not only had he accidentally given me my £7 back but he also gave me an extra 10p…bargain! the film itself was pretty good, not as good as the first 2 Shrek films but definitely worth a watch. I had a really good day…despite a crazy black man coming up to us at the bus stop and saying something I couldn’t quite make out before telling me that I wasn’t miss world…and there was me thinking I was too.
The rest of that week was pretty boring, it was mainly spent trying to sand the radiator, we switched to an electric sander which helped but it’s still taking forever.
Last Monday I met up with Amanda again, we went to wetherspoons and spent most of the day in there, we both got asked for ID too which is pretty funny seeing as I’m 26 in a few months. Once again it was another really good day…no crazy black man at the bus stop…but still a really good day.
The next night I went to wetherspoons again, this time with Adam, Gaz and Carl. Personally I think we should have all gone to the plough…either that or the plough…or maybe even the plough.
Thursday saw the rain stop long enough for me and Gaz to go into Solihull and pick up a few things, afterwards we headed back and grabbed some chips only for the rain to start again.
On to the weekend, and I decided that it was about time to introduce Amanda to my family and vice versa. Amanda came round about lunch time and got on really well with my mum and sister, she stayed the weekend and we had a really nice time.
So 2 weeks after my last blog (if you ignore the fact that this is backdated) and things are finally looking up for me, not only do I have an amazing new girlfriend but I feel a lot more positive about everything now.
I better start writing the next blog now to get this back up to date, so while I do that you can watch a video…
The next day we decided to check out Monkey World. Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against monkeys…or apes, but what I’m not too keen on is putting them on display for people to stare at, especially when you get people with pushchairs pushing their way to the front telling their kids to ‘Look at the monkeys!’ when they’re clearly looking at apes. In fact, while we’re on the subject, I also had a problem with the name, ‘Monkey World’ suggests that you’re visiting a world full of monkeys, where in actual fact it was mainly apes and even though it was a big place, it didn’t quite qualify to be classed as a world, I think ‘Primate Park’ would probably be more suitable. But apart from all that we had quite a good day, they had a section where the lemurs would roam free and they’d run around your legs and steal your food then attack your children. 
The following day was bank-holiday Monday, and just like any other bank-holiday Monday - everyone was going where you wanted to go. As it happened though my dad fancied a lazy day before he went back to work, so I went into Bournemouth with Amanda for a sit on the beach and an ice cream. 
After walking around for a while we noticed that there wasn’t really much there, there were a few peacocks but no red squirrels. We headed back to the boat, on the way back it does a tour of the Bournemouth and Poole coast, they went past Sandbanks and told us that it is now the most expensive place to buy property in the UK.
